NASA Plans to Visit a Near-Earth AsteroidIn a few years a NASA spacecraft will seek the building blocks of life in a shovelful of asteroid dirt. The OSIRIS-REx1 spacecraft, targeted for launch in September 2016, will intercept asteroid 1999 RQ36, orbit it for a year, and then reach out a robotic arm to touch its surface....
The name for the carbon-rich asteroid, designated in the scientific community as (101955) 1999 RQ36, is the winning entry in an international student contest. Nine-year-old Michael Puzio suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron. Puzio wrote the name suits the asteroid because it means "the ascending one," or "to shine."
Quote from: catdlr on 05/01/2013 08:16 pmThe name for the carbon-rich asteroid, designated in the scientific community as (101955) 1999 RQ36, is the winning entry in an international student contest. Nine-year-old Michael Puzio suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron. Puzio wrote the name suits the asteroid because it means "the ascending one," or "to shine." Does anybody else find it a stretch a nine-year-old was conversant with minor deities of ancient Egypt, the derivation of the words in the name, and the visual similarities between an as-yet-unconstructed NASA probe and blue herons? No doubt he then gave a lecture on the changing depictions of Bennu from the Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom, and the symbolic yearning for flight that transcended ancient Egypt and connects it to our space program today. FWIW, Bennu is not listed in the Wikipedia entry on Egyptian gods...it's that minor.
The v411 has already flown three times. The launch's are quite spectacular since it appears to push the rocket sideways off the pad.